Another skier, now-retired Austrian great Hermann Maier, served as inspiration for Sunday's win. With a young Mayer watching on TV, Maier returned from a downhill crash at the 1998 Nagano Games to win the super-G a few days later.

"I was with my grandpa and we set an alarm in the middle of the night," Mayer said. "That was impressive to me. That made me want to be a downhiller more."

The once-dominant Austrian men's team didn't win a single medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games, but that changed quickly in the first event of the Alpine schedule this time.

"A start like this, this is maybe something we didn't expect," Austria men's head coach Mathias Berthold said. "He seemed pretty confident. I wasn't sure. He's not an experienced guy so you never know what he's going to do."

Mayer was one of the first contenders to come down, with the No. 11 bib, and he trailed Kjetil Jansrud at the second checkpoint but mastered the rest of the course.

"The last races, he was very super-fast in training and he always did something stupid (in races) because he's so young," Berthold said. "Finally, he was able to put it together."

Once the race was over, Mayer closed his eyes as he was introduced to the crowd and then opened them up and jumped onto the top step of the podium, raising his arms in celebration as Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann looked on from the stands.

"It's amazing to be an Olympic champion," Mayer said.

Mayer's joy came in sharp contrast to Miller's desperation.

After crossing the finish, Miller sat down on his skis with a look of bewilderment on his face. And that was understandable, considering that he had dominated two of the three official training sessions.

"It's tough. I was looking to win," Miller said. "I thought I had a good chance at it. I was well-prepared."

Miller was one of the fastest skiers on the top section but lost speed when he hit a gate on a right turn a bit further down.

With clouds hanging over the course during the race, conditions were different from the sun and shade of the training sessions.

"The visibility has changed a ton from the training run," Miller said. "The middle and bottom of the course slowed so much from the beginning of the race until I went that I thought you have to do something magical to win.

"I didn't really make any mistakes in the middle and bottom of the course," Miller added. "And I lost a ton of time."